EU migration chief threatens consequences for not hosting refugees

The European Union's top migration official on Tuesday warned member states against failing to host refugees and help alleviate the pressure on countries like Greece and Italy, which have borne the brunt of arrivals across the Mediterranean.

Dimitris Avramopoulos was speaking in Poland, whose euroskeptic government rejects a mandatory quota agreed on by EU leaders in September, 2015, and has taken in none of the nearly 6,200 migrants allocated to it.

Fewer than 14,500 asylum-seekers have been relocated from Greece and Italy, the first EU countries that many refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa set foot in, under the two-year plan that was supposed to cover 160,000 people and expires in September.